I'll Come Back

Chapter 2

Charlie and Meryl finished eating lunch and walked to the front door. Charlie grabbed his overnight bag and gave Tanith a kiss. "Do I seriously have to do this? It's Meryl's problem!" Charlie begged to Tanith. "Charlie...get your sorry ass out the door and in the car. You might have to spend all week with me until we figure out how to fix this" Meryl said already out the door. "But this is so dumb!" Charlie complained walking out the door. "Don't care" Meryl said opening the passenger car door. "Ugh!" Charlie said hopping into the drivers seat.

He put the keys in the ignition and started the car. He pulled out of his driveway and drove down the street. "So, where are we going?" Charlie asked. "Ummmm" Meryl said. "You made me come to help you and you don't even know where we're going?!" Charlie said. "I didn't really make you come with...Tanith did" Meryl said. "Yeah whatever. Looks like we're going to be doing this roadtrip style!" Charlie said sarcastically. "Just drivin' all over the place!" He said with a southern accent. This made Meryl laugh. "WAIT, NO! Better idea - we should rent a van and do it stakeout style!" Charlie said excitedly. "Absolutely not" Meryl said sternly. "Come on, Mer! You're taking all the fun out of this!" Charlie said elbowing Meryl's arm playfully. "That's the point....this isn't supposed to be fun" Meryl said laughing as she punched his arm a bit harder. "Dude!" Charlie complained. "Dude what?" Meryl laughed as she looked at the map on her phone as she searched for possibly places that Maks could. Meryl kept scrolling threw her phone. She needed to talk to Maks. She once loved that guy, and she needed to speak her mind. And by 'speak her mind' she means 'kick his ass'. "Oh...my...god" Meryl said softly. "Oh hey look! It's Maks!" Charlie said. Maks was walking down the sidewalk. Charlie rolled down Meryl's window. "Charlie what are you doing?!" Meryl yelled as she tried to roll her window back up, but Charlie just rolled it down again. "Hey Maks! How's it goin' bud?" Charlie yelled at him, still driving down the road. Maks turned around looking confused. He finally figured out that it was Charlie and Meryl in the car. "Charlie!" Maks said excitedly. "Meryl..." He said a bluntly. "Oh I'm sorry. You don't look too happy to see me! Well that's okay, cause I'm not too thrilled to see you either" Meryl said. "Well if you would recall that lovely moment that we had at Starbucks, then you would know why am not dancing around the car" Maks said sarcastically. "He's got a point" Charlie said to Meryl. "That's it!" Meryl yelled as she stormed out of the car.

"YOU are a lying, cheating, playing bastard!" Meryl yelled pointing at Maks. "How about you go to a bar super drunk and try to control yourself!" Maks said. "Right! And I'm sure you thought the skank you slept with was me." Meryl said sarcastically. "I couldn't tell the difference!" Maks said. Meryl chuckled. "I hope you know that you're doing a really shitty job defending yourself, Maks" Meryl said. "I'm trying to say sorry!" Maks said to her. "Well I'm getting that message crystal clear" Meryl said sarcastically.

"Whoa! Whoa! Simmer down, lovebirds!" Charlie said laughing nervously. Charlie saw the look on Meryl's face and instantly stopped laughing. "Wrong crowd" Charlie muttered. Charlie turned to Maks. "Hey, bro. Nice to see you" Maks said to Charlie. "Yeah long time" Charlie smiled and said to Maks. Charlie turned to Meryl. "How about you get back in the car and let me handle this. And please, try not to kill anyone" Charlie said leading her back to the car. "Sorry bro. Meryl's just...yeah. So, Tanith and I want to have a nice dinner, but we want to find a really nice place that we haven't been to! So, I just wanted to know if there was a restaurant where you were staying" Charlie asked. "Yeah there is! It's nice too, but I haven't eaten there, just the bar" Maks said as he started laughing uncomfortably. "Ok....well, where are you staying?" Charlie asked, trying to discretely find out where Maks was staying. "Oh, I'm just staying at the casino dowtown" Maks said. "Ok! Thanks bud! Well, we gotta scram, so, might catch you downtown" Charlie said quickly as he ran to the drivers side of the car. "Ok - well, yeah. See you around" Maks said uncomfortably as he walked away.

Charlie got back in the car and looked at Meryl. Charlie hated to see her so upset. "Okay, so he's staying at the casino downtown" Charlie said to Meryl. "Okay? So what do we do? We aren't gonna follow him....are we?" Meryl said as she looked at Charlie. "I don't want to follow him! This is so stupid!" Meryl yelled. "Well you know what Meryl, this might be the only solution to your problem" Charlie said. He turned the key and started the car. He pulled back into the street and started towards downtown Detroit. "Why are we doing, Charlie? We're acting like little kids! Just think about it. We're following my ex-boyfriend to his hotel so that I can talk to him....that's crazy!" Meryl said to Charlie. "I know. But it's the only thing we've got. Public spaces don't work for the two of you, so you need to go somewhere private." Charlie said keeping his eyes on the road. "Why? Why do you want me to talk to him so badly?" Meryl asked. "Because Meryl, you could love this guy. How will you know if you never talk to him?" Charlie said. "I don't love him, believe me." Meryl scoffed. "Well.....we'll see" Charlie smiled and kept driving.